Actively Managed ETFs: The Next Generation? 

By Stephen P. Brown

There are a few stumbling blocks, but a U.S. launch could be just around the corner. ...

BROKER PROTOCOL FOR ALL? 

John Churchill

The broker protocol just got a lot more inclusive. The exclusive pact between several wirehouse and broker/dealer firms stipulates that the firms will...

A Sign of the Top for Private Equity? 

By Kevin Burke

If the Blackstone Group ever goes public, it sure would be cool to get an allocation of the IPO. Imagine your clients at cocktail parties, bragging about how they are “in” enough to have gotten a piece of that deal. (Sure might help you recruit new clients.) But, one wonders, if Blackstone co-founder Stephen Schwarzman is selling, do you want to be buying? Put another way, the news that buyout behemoth Blackstone Group is mulling an IPO may be “a sign” that this rather secretive market segment may be peaking....

A Market Sell Off? What Market Sell Off? 

By Stan Luxenberg

When the market dives, that’s when hedge funds—well, those true to their name—are supposed to earn their money. That’s because many hedge funds are designed to avoid big losses and make money nearly every year using low-correlating absolute-return strategies. Lately mutual funds have appeared that are designed to act like hedge funds, selling short or using other techniques to produce steady results in many market climates....

Retail Hedge Fund Investors to the SEC: Buzz Off 

By Halah Touryalai

Here’s a dose of irony for the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC thinks it needs to do more to “protect” wealthy retail investors from the secretive world of hedge funds. To do so, it is entertaining the idea of enacting more stringent rules as to who can invest. Here’s the irony: The agency is now faced with negative feedback from those very investors it is trying to safeguard. Many wealthy investors say they can take care of themselves, thank you very much....

The DIY Hedge Fund 

By David A. Geracioti

Some years ago, during the Great Buying Panic of the 1990s, it occurred to Rob Isbitts that the traditional idea of diversification might not provide the downside protection it was advertised to deliver. As an investment advisor with Emerald Asset Advisors, an RIA in Weston, Fla., Isbitts saw new clients who had assets spread all over the place; it was as if the prior “advisor [was] trying to fill all the boxes in the famous Morningstar Style Box, then convincing the client that they [could] weather any storm,” Isbitts says. “I think this is very 1990s thinking, and it is potentially very dangerous to you as an advisor. Style-box investing does not reduce your risk as much as you think it does.”...

A New Kind of Future(s) 

By Brad Zigler

SOME PEOPLE have too much of a good thing: The 2001 tech wreck taught a lot of advisors and their clients that. In fact, no advisor worth his salt would suggest that a bond fund, a small-cap fund and exposure to, say, the 10 industry segments of the S&P 500 is all you need to smooth out a rocky equity market...

Immediate Annuities 

By Kevin McKinley

Over the last two months we've covered the ins-and-outs of single premium immediate annuities (SPIAs). ...

The DIY Hedge Fund 

By David A. Geracioti

Some years ago, during the Great Buying Panic of the 1990s, it occurred to Rob Isbitts that the traditional idea of diversification might not provide the downside protection it was advertised to deliver....

Got Conflicts? 

By Stan Luxenberg

When the mutual fund scandals broke in 2003, some of the most notorious villains were so-called side-by-side managers money managers that ran mutual funds and hedge funds at the same time....

A Tempest Over Structured Products 

By John Churchill

STRUCTURED PRODUCTS, complicated hybrid securities used both to hedge and to speculate, are among the fastest growing investment vehicles in the retail market...

Zacks Investment Research Special Stock Screen: The Contrarian Way 

Special to Registered Rep., By Adam Cohen, Zacks Investment Research

Dividends—considered silly back in the roaring 1990's—are once again in vogue. Here's a screen to uncover strong, dividend-paying stocks...

A Yen for Greenbacks 

By Milton Ezrati

The outlook for the U.S. dollar is not as bad as some of the 'smart money' would have you believe...

Hedgies Bet Cruise Is Still Top Gun 

John Churchill

All of Tom Cruise's wacky antics haven't dried up his star power, or at least that's the bet of some unnamed hedge funds bankrolling him. ...

Will Amaranth Debacle Curb Enthusiasm for Hedge Funds of Funds? 

By Kristen French

News of colossal losses at one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S., Amaranth Advisors, throws yet another cloud over the alternative investments....